Saving for Christmas – Viggle

                                                        

As you know, I’m always looking for creative ways to fund my Christmas purchases. Recently a friend of mine shared that he was using an APP called Viggle to accumulate points that he would use to buy gift certificates.

Straight from their website: Viggle is a loyalty program for television that gives people real rewards for checking into the television shows they’re watching. Currently available for Apple iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch®, Viggle automatically identifies what television shows its users are watching and awards them points when they check-in. Viggle users can redeem their points in the app’s rewards catalogue for items such as movie tickets, music, gift cards and much more.

As you can see, one of the downsides of Viggle is its limited availability. I would hope that as they get more market awareness they would look to expand their APP availability to capture a new audience.

I’ve been using the APP for a little over a month now and have to say that I like it and find it well worth my time. My gift certificate of choice is the Old Navy gift card which is currently available for 18,000 points. I’ve already collected one and should be able to collect a second one in a few days.

In my opinion, you don’t have to be a crazy TV watcher to use this APP. Individually we aren’t huge TV watchers in our house, but between the four of us it does add up. There are also a variety of other ways to earn points.

Ways to Earn Points

• Log onto any TV program and you will receive 1 point per minute of watching
• Log on to bonus programs (they are specifically identified) and in addition to the point per minute you will also be awarded 100 – 300 bonus points depending upon the show that you watch. Last Friday if you were able to watch Ellen and checked in you were awarded 1,500 bonus points!
• Play games on certain shows while checked in. Some of the bonus programs will have questions that if answered correctly can earn you up to 25 bonus points. Answering the questions wrong will give you at least five points.
• Watch commercials and trailers. I just watched a David Beckham Burger King commercial and earned 75 points. The points per trailer/commercial vary; the biggest award that I’ve seen is 100 while the smallest is 5.
• Invite your friends. By registering here or through one of the links I have posted throughout this review, I will earn 200 points for anyone who signs up the first time they check in.

Positives

• Ease of the program. The APP is very easy to navigate around and doesn’t take much time to check in
• You do not need to be glued to the TV at all times. As I said, we aren’t crazy TV watchers. We have one account that we share as a family. My husband and I usually have the news on all morning while we are getting ready, my son will typically watch sports in the afternoon and after dinner we’ll flip on the TV for some evening shows. While we may not be glued to the TV at all times it is usually on so we just check into whatever is on. Sometimes we’ll decide what to turn on based on the value of the bonus points!
• Points accumulate fairly quickly. We average about 1,000 points a day between our bonus points, games that I’ve played and commercials. If I’m checking in consistently that equates to a $10 Old Navy gift card every three weeks.
• Variety of prize levels available. The prizes range from $5 certificates to Starbucks and Redbox all the way up to an Kindle Fire.

Negatives

• My biggest negative is the evolution of the program. In the short time that I’ve been with the program I’ve seen the prices of the rewards go up. My friend who has been using it longer than I have has stated that the prices have risen several times and the earning potential has decreased. As a business person I totally get that you need to do what you need to do to stay profitable. As I consumer I don’t always like it.
• Sometimes getting your program checked in is difficult. The way it is supposed to work is that you “tap” to check in, your phone listens to your TV and identifies the program that you are watching. The system will go through that cycle twice before it gives you the option to manually check in it if can’t determine your show. For some reason, mostly on my iPad, there are times that it won’t give me the manually check in option. This is quite frustrating when the show is playing, the device won’t identify it and I can’t manually check in. I’m even more frustrated if it’s a high value program.

Overall this is an APP that I would recommend if you have an Apple device. The program requires very little work with a fairly lucrative payout. While you won’t get rich, having $50 - $60 bucks to offset your Christmas spend (or before school clothing spend) will be very beneficial.

Have any of you used Viggle? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

You might also like:

Paying for Christmas - Swagbucks
Using Kaizen to Simplify Life

Merry Christmas!

Before the festivities start, I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you for coming back to read me day after day.  This first year of serious blogging has been a learning experience and I'm thankful for each and every one of you.

Whatever your plans are for the coming days, I wish you nothing but the best.  Enjoy the time with your loved ones, don't stress about what's not done.  These days are way to fleeting to not live them to the fullest.

From our house to yours - Merry Christmas!

Unplanned Desk Organization

I find that there are some areas of the house that "just are.....".  For whatever reason they haven't gotten any attention recently (or in years).  They sit there, quietly taken for granted and unseen by the homeowners while collecting dust.

We've had several areas like this over the years that we've been picking away at, slowly but surely.  When the area is done we always sit back and say "wow, why didn't someone tell us how awful it looked before!".  This is because in our quietly taking for granted state we don't realize just how awful it really is.

I don't think that many of us plan to have these areas, they just happen.  Maybe we're unsure what to do, maybe we don't have the time, money or energy to deal with them.  Whatever the reason, they are certainly there.

In some of my earlier posts I've talked about my Christmas decoration envy and how I was letting it go.  Yeah - that didn't quite happen.  The problem, I believe, is that I was way to ahead of the game.  Let myself get through a Christmas without some last minute frenzy?  Maybe one of these years I'll let that happen, just not this year.  Of course, nothing is ever easy so it turned into a semi-organizing project.

This is what our desk looks like on a typical day.

Since we've gotten laptops this desk really doesn't get used anymore.  A few facts

• I don't know what papers are hiding in the cabinets and drawers
• That purse hiding in the opening hasn't been used in eons
• The computer hasn't been used in years (like 3+)
• I have the kid's artwork on top collecting dust.  My son just turned 21 and there are items from his elementary school days up there.
• The dust collector in the back is a ship that my father in law made back when my husband still lived at home.  It's seen better days.

As I was thinking about my lack of decorations and what I could do I realized this was a prime spot to decorate.  Of course, there needed to be some organization first.  I'm not going to pretend I'm completely done here, this organization is a "just enough to get by" kind of organization.

• First thing I did was to get the computer off the desk.  We have it's predecessor stuck back also, I really need to find a place to get rid of those things.
• Next I went through the cubby holes getting rid of items that we didn't need.  I had five disposable cameras up there, it will be fun to see what comes back!
• Packed up the kids "treasures".  I will bring a couple back once the holidays are done but not to this level.
• Thoroughly dusted (which actually meant bringing out the vacuum cleaner to get up behind the desk)
• Shopped for the garland (it was my husband's fault, he sent me back to Hobby Lobby to exchange a wreath.  Otherwise I'm sure I wouldn't have been tempted :)
• Re-organized the cords

This isn't perfect and now that my eyes have been opened I have all kinds of ideas for this part of the family room.  Of course it requires money so it will be going on my 2012 financial goals list.

Here is what the desk looks like now.

What have you been organizing this holiday season?

I'll be linking this up to I'm an Organizing Junkie

Baking as Cost Effectively as Possible

Ah, the season of stressful Christmas cooking baking is upon us.  That time of year when we are forced have the pleasure to bake unending batches of cookies and candies.  That time of year when we can go broke buying ingredients for our baking needs.

Let's face it, baking is expensive!  Have you checked out pecan prices this year?   If not you are going to be in a for a rude awakening when you go to make your candied pecans.  Some of us (yes, that would be me) don't think about ingredients until right before (or sometimes during) the baking day which makes the cost even more astronomical.  Do you know what a convenience store charges for sugar and an orange?  Ugh!

In my opinion, there are a few ways to cut down on the expense of baking.

1.  Cut back on the amount and varieties that you make. 

If you are one of those who really enjoy this time of year this may not be something you want to do.  However, if you find the baking season a little stressful cut back.  As I mentioned in the baking post in my "De-Stressing the Holidays series", we only made our family favorites this year.  I also cut down significantly on the number of batches I made of our favorite cookies.  Trust me, there is still plenty and I won't be throwing any away in January.

If money is really a concern, you may want to craft your list based on the cost of the ingredients.  If you skip the candied pecans you may be able to add two different types of cookies.  It's all about what's important to you and your family.

2.  Plan ahead.

This doesn't sound like fun, does it?  Planning ahead is really key if you want to pay the least amount for baking.  Planning ahead (and I'm talking months) allows you to keep your eyes open for sales.  Most baking items store well and can be kept for several months.  To assist you in your planning ahead I would recommend you do the following.

• Make the list of goodies you plan on baking and the quantities needed.
• Create a shopping list of items (and quantities) you need.
• If possible, add the regular price of the item to your list.  This will help you when you are out shopping to know if it's a good deal or not.
• Keep an eye out for coupons and specials, picking up and setting aside items when at a good price.
• Buy one item a week over the course of several months to create your baking stock pile without breaking the bank.

3.  Share the pain.

Cooking together is not only more fun it can also be more cost effective.  We've done many multi-generational baking days over the years.  One thing that I've found is that sometimes one of us may have the expensive items needed already in our pantry.  We typically make the shopping list and then go through on own pantries committing to certain items.  For any items not on the list we'll all chip in money for one of us to pick up the rest of the ingredients.

By cooking as a group, if you choose to, you can usually have a larger variety of cookies in smaller quantities.  Multiple hands make the baking of different cookies easier.  An added bonus is the memories that you will have of spending the day together.

Do you have any other recommendations for saving money baking?

You may also like:

Popcorn Balls
Carrot Cookies
Sweet & Salty Snowmen
Christmas Tree Cheese Display

2011 Christmas Tour

I'll be publishing the decorating piece of the "De-Stressing the Holidays" later today, in the meantime I thought I'd share with you some of my Christmas decorating.

As you can see, we're at a time in our life where I go fairly easy on the decorating.  In a few years I may beef it up a notch but for right now this is what works for us and makes my Christmas fairly stress free.

I'm going to apologize for the picture quality as they aren't the best.  I've been having problems with my camera and didn't realize how poorly these turned out until I uploaded them.  When I get home this evening I'll try it again and hopefully the pictures will be better.

Welcome to our house.  Outside I keep things pretty simple with an artificial tree and garland.  I do buy a real wreath and boughs for the planter every year.  I add bows to the light fixtures to tie my burgundy theme in across the front of the whole house.  The wreath on the front door is made of sticks and berries that I re-use from year to year.

In our living room I keep things pretty simple too.  The Nativity is kept on the piano along with a lantern and fake amaryllis.  I have a live poinsettia as well as some snowmen scattered throughout the room.

This is our dining area where we keep our "company" tree.  Before finishing our basement we would put up a large tree in the living room.  However, it took away quite a bit of seating and made the living room cramped for parties.  By moving our "family" tree downstairs and buying a skinnier tree I was able to move it to a less crowded area and buys decorations that match our decor.  The burgundy/red theme carries pretty much all the way through our main floor.

Come on downstairs and I'll show you what I have going on down here.  This is our family tree where we hang all the ornaments we've received over the years and the kids made when they were small.  I've actually gone a little light on the ornaments this year due to time constraints.  This is where we celebrate Christmas on Christmas morning.

This is our nod to "The Christmas Story", one of our favorite holiday movies.  A few years ago for Christmas I splurged and bought my husband this lamp for one of his presents.  We keep it up all year long downstairs in the family room, but on Christmas Eve I bring it upstairs right before we go to church.  I move the couch out of the front window and replace it with the leg lamp.  I then turn down the lights so that the leg lamp is shown in all of it's glory before being returned to it's regular place downstairs when we get home.  We have a lot of fun with it and we get a ton of comments from people seeing it for the first time.  There are also some Santa's and snowmen scattered throughout the room also.

How do you decorate for the holidays?  Feel free to share a link to your decorating post in the comments.

I'll be linking this up over at The Nester

You might also like:

12 Things Your Christmas Tree Says About You
Sweet & Salty Snowmen
De-Stressing the Holidays: Christmas Baking
De-Stressing the Holidays: Shopping Wisely

12 Funny Things Your Christmas Tree Says About You

I received this link in my Taste of Home e-mail but this information was originally published in Reader’s Digest (one of the few magazines I subscribe to) in 2009. I thought it this was cute and worth sharing.

• White lights: You ask houseguests to remove their shoes.
• Multicolored lights: You’re an extrovert.
• Blinking Lights: You have attention deficit disorder.
• Homemade Ornaments:  You have lots of children.
• Strung Popcorn: You have too much time on your hands.
• Red balls only: You wish you lived in a department store.
• Yellow star on top: You’re traditional.
• Glowing Santa on top: You shop at Kitsch ‘R’ Us.
• Cutoff top: You didn’t measure the tree.
• Vague evergreen smell: You bought a healthy tree.
• Strong evergreen smell: You sprayed your tree with Pine-Sol.
• Just plain smelly: There’s a dead bird in your tree.

The above picture is our upstairs tree. Sorry the picture isn't the best, my SD card is broken so I had to take the picture with my Blackberry.  We'll need to get a new card before the holidays, I'm just hoping I'll be able to pull the pictures on the broken card off!   Just for the record, here is how we rank from the above:

• I do have white lights (that's our company tree at the top of the post) and I do ask people to take their shoes off.
• Do you really think I'd even attempt popcorn and cranberries?  There were years early on when I did debate doing it but I've since grown older and wiser :)
• My tree doesn't smell at all since I have (gasp!) artificial trees.  We've had an artificial tree ever since we built our house 18 years ago because I didn't want to deal with needles in the brand new carpet.  A few years ago we moved to pre-lit trees because I honestly thought that I would have a stroke putting lights on the tree.  Getting pre-lit trees was a HUGE stress reliever for me.
• I do have red and gold balls on our "company" tree because as a time saver I bought a "Tree in a Box" from a.........Department Store!
• We don't have any tree toppers on the top of our tree since it looks like our Angel almost caught fire one year (she's horribly singed)
• Yes - I do have a significant amount of homemade ornaments on our "family" tree but I wouldn't classify two kids as a lot.

Does this accurately depict you? 

Sweet & Salty Snowmen Recipe

Aren’t these absolutely adorable? I wish I could take credit for coming up with these but I can’t. As a bonus for attending the Taste of Home Cooking School this year I receive regular e-mails from them with recipes. I think Taste of Home offers some fantastic recipes, a lot of which are easy – just my style!


These look super easy to make and are something that I think both younger children and older children would have fun doing. I may try these during a sleepover I want to have with my oldest niece at our house.

I found this recipe at Taste of Home but will go ahead and add the instructions below.


Sweet & Salty Snowmen Recipe

• 8 Servings

• Prep/Total Time: 25 min.


Ingredients

• 8 pretzel rods

• 6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted

• Assorted candies: M&M's miniature baking bits, miniature chocolate chips, small gumdrops, jelly rings, Fruit by the Foot fruit rolls

Directions

• Dip pretzel rods two-thirds of the way into melted white chocolate, or drizzle chocolate over pretzels with a spoon. Attach baking bits for buttons and noses and chocolate chips for eyes.

• For hats, dip the bottom of a small gumdrop into chocolate and press onto a jelly ring; attach to the top of each pretzel.

• Carefully stand snowmen by placing them upright in a tall glass or pressing the bottom of the pretzel rods into a 2-in.-thick piece of Styrofoam. For scarves, cut fruit rolls into thin strips; tie around snowmen. Yield: 8 snowmen.

Enjoy!

Pin It

Gift Wrapping

I have a sister in law who loves the process of wrapping presents. In fact, I believe that she personally keeps 3M in business with her use of Scotch Tape. Her “trademark” wrapping includes making sure that all seams are completely taped shut. Pocket knives are a must on Christmas morning when opening her presents. Since she loves wrapping so much she thinks nothing of sitting for hours upon hours wrapping her presents.

I, on the other hand, hate wrapping presents. On the flip side I really do like my gifts to be beautifully presented. Quite the conundrum isn’t it? Over the years I have handled gift wrapping in a multitude of ways. I have….

• Outsourced the wrapping to charities
• Begged and pleaded accepted my parents offer to assist with wrapping on Christmas Eve. Of course this entailed staying up until almost midnight to finish and copious amounts of hot chocolate and cookies
• Nagged politely asked my husband for help
• Spent a fortune in gift bags, eliminating the need to wrap anything
• Spent hours wrapping with coordinated wrapping paper and matching bows. All the while whining and complaining about the monumental task I was faced with.

 It should come as no surprise given my eclectic method of getting my gifts wrapped that there are numerous comments Christmas morning at my in laws as to the stressfulness of my Christmas season. They can tell whether I was “together” or not by how my presents are wrapped.

At work I tell people that if they are faced with a situation they don’t like they have two options. 1) They can change the situation or 2) they can change their attitude. This year I have decided to change my attitude as well as change the situation. Here is what I’ve done.

• Bought my wrapping paper, ribbons and bows early (like while shopping for my Halloween candy) so I was prepared when I wanted to start wrapping.
• Wrap my presents as I buy them instead of waiting until I’m done shopping. I waited until I had a few gifts and then held a wrapping party for myself.
• Let go of the anger and frustration from not getting help. My husband doesn’t like wrapping so why force the issue? I do know that if I get to the point where I really need the help he will pitch in. However, I need to be content that the wrapping quality will not be on par with what I would do.
• Take advantage of downtime in front of the TV. The other day we watched The Prestige on TV. Instead of lying on the couch, I pulled out my wrapping supplies. Wrapping presents while keeping my mind occupied with the movie helped it go much faster.

 In addition to the changes I implemented, I have developed some sure fire ways to make wrapping easier. Here is a little bit of my wrapping wisdom.

• Before starting, make sure you have enough of the appropriate supplies conveniently stored. I personally like to use a shoebox to store the following items:
• Writing utensils
• Tape
• Scissors
• Name tags

In a handled shopping bag I store my ribbons and bow. Wrapping paper is stored in a special wrapping paper zipped bag I bought a number of years ago. All these supplies are kept together in a convenient location.

• Buy quality paper and tape. I’m not saying you need to buy top of the line, but cheap paper tends to rip easily. Having to tape up tears in the paper is frustrating and wasteful. Plus, if your tape is difficult to tear or doesn’t want to stick that isn’t saving you time or money.
• Don’t buy pretty paper that has glitter on it. In case you didn’t know, tape does not like to stick to glitter plus glitter likes to get all over and resists vacuuming. While the paper may be gorgeous, not having tape stick can make the process of using it to wrap presents rather stressful.
• Don’t wrap odd size packages as is. If an item is oddly shaped or not in a box, I put it in a different box to wrap. I have found that shoe boxes, check boxes and shirt boxes tend to be the best shape to wrap. Added bonus is that if you put your package in another box the shape is disguised and less likely to be guess.

 At the end of the day, my best advice is to do what works best for you. If that means outsourcing your wrapping or using brown paper grocery bags stapled at the top, then so be it. Whatever you have to do to take the stress out is what you need to do.

How do you handle gift wrapping in your house?

You might also like:

Shopping Wisely
De-Stressing the Season
Carrot Cookie Recipe
Popcorn Balls

Christmas Baking

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas baking. Baking is one of my skills and quite possibly the reason my husband married me. I love to do it but I tend to go into overdrive, stressing myself out and wasting supplies.  Christmas baking is expensive enough without wasting your goods!

Over the years I have:

• Bitten off more than I could chew resulting in throwing out unfinished batter and/or unfrosted cookies
• Allowed my perfectionism to make me miss opportunities to have my younger children help
• Exhausted myself to the point of not being able to enjoy the holiday celebrations.

 This year I have decided to limit what I bake to just our favorite cookies and cut back on the batch size.  While difficult for me to do, I felt this was necessary to not only help in the de-stressing of Christmas but to also cut back on Christmas spending.  Here is what I am planning on having this year for treats.

• Molasses cookies - I’ll share the recipe later
• Carrot Cookies
• Chocolate chip cookies. I know I had said earlier that my original plan was to skip these but we had some company coming so I decided to whip up a batch and stick them aside for Christmas
• Popcorn balls
• Frosted cut out cookies – One of our local grocery stores sell baked, unfrosted cut out cookies. I buy a few dozen for us to frost.

 As I’ve gotten older I’ve mellowed out some as far as my perfectionism goes. This has allowed me to accept help and make my baking experience more enjoyable.

This year my mother and I planned on spending a day together baking. Unfortunately there was only one Saturday that worked for the both of us and that Saturday happened to coincide with the only time my cleaning ladies could come over. I actually almost didn’t bake with my mom so that I could have my kitchen cleaned!

As I was biting my nails, agonizing what to do I gave myself the proverbial kick in the pants. Earlier this year my mom’s heart stopped beating. By the Grace of God and the remarkable coordinating of events by her guardian angel, she came through the ordeal relatively unscathed. We’ve been told that 19 out of 20 people who arrive at the ER in her condition either die or have brain damage. The only lingering effect of her ordeal is an implanted defibrillator. Was I really going to miss the change to spend a day baking with my mom just so my kitchen would be clean? Absolutely not! We had a very nice day baking together and I just lived with having to clean my own kitchen. :)

In addition to letting my mother in the kitchen, I’ve started insisting that the recipient of my baking skills help with the baking process. My husband is more than happy to roll popcorn balls & help dip molasses cookies when he knows he’ll be getting to sample the goodies!

Last but not least, why go through the trouble of having children if we’re not going to take advantage of the cheap labor? When it comes to frosting cookies it’s all hands on deck. Even my son is not exempt from cookie frosting. The trick is to make sure that the cookies I frost are set aside for company while the everyone else’s cookies are for the house

How do you handle Christmas baking in your house?

I'll be linking this up at Life as Mom

You might also like:
Shopping Wisely
Saving for Christmas
Christmas Tree Cheese Display

Shopping Wisely

As I stated in my post yesterday, this year my goal was to make Christmas less stressful for me. Since I decided last Christmas that things needed to change, I had all year to think about how to successfully implement the changes. If you are just getting started this year don’t worry, just like Ebenezer Scrooge you too have the power to change the “Christmas Yet to Come” by changing today.

The very first thing I did to combat the financial stress is to set up a Christmas club. This has been a tremendous help and has allowed us to breathe easier and not use our “extra” December paycheck on Christmas presents. If you have not already set up a Christmas club I would really encourage you to do so for 2012. Even $10 - $20 per paycheck would give you a nice little cushion for presents.

The second thing that I did was to start my Christmas list in the summer. A number of bloggers usually write about “Christmas in July” or some other Christmas theme in the middle of summer. While I didn’t necessarily start buying in the summer, I did use this reminder to pull out my list and start thinking about what I would like to get people. By thinking about my Christmas list I’m able to pick up items for my family during craft shows and my “girl’s shopping weekends”.

In the spirit of full disclosure I’m going to be honest with you; my budget for Christmas gifts is fairly large. I expect to spend anywhere between $1,500 & $2,000 on Christmas presents for my kids and extended family. This works for us given the fact that we are a two income family, our kids are older and we have been blessed with the ability to live below our income - it certainly wasn't always this way.   I enjoy giving and don't expect other family members to spend equivalent amounts on me.  I also try to find ways to decrease our actual spend by getting gifts for free or on sale. Your budget needs to reflect your financial situation as well as your desire to give.  Here is a glimpse into some of what we are giving as presents this year and how I’ve gone about buying them.

Gifts I Was Able to Get for Free

• White House Ornaments – (3) paid for with credit card rewards
• Necklace from The Mercy House store – paid for with credit card rewards
• Sports Illustrated Subscription – paid for with Swagbucks
• M Magazine subscription – (2) paid for with Swagbucks
• Gift cards to Hobby Lobby – paid for with a US Cellular phone rebate
• Two pairs of jeans and two shirts – paid for with Kohl’s cash
• Autographed sports picture – paid for with ING bonus cash
• Pink perfume from VS – paid for with a $10 “certificate” I received when I bought some “unmentionables” for myself a few weeks ago. I made sure to shop their perfume when it was 50% off and basically just paid some tax.
• Martini mix and chocolate covered cinnamon apples (from a Dove Chocolate party)
• Tastefully Simple (hostess gifts from a Tastefully Simple party)
• Stocking stuffers with my free $10 certificates from JC Penney’s & Kohl’s

 That’s about $500 worth of gifts that I was able to get for free. A word of caution, don’t rack up debt or buy something just to get free items. All the credits and rewards I used were from items we truly needed and we paid the credit card statement at the end of the month.

Another piece of advice, this was my first year using Swagbucks. If you are planning on using Swagbucks I would encourage you to do the $5 Amazon card as soon as you have enough points. The is the biggest bang for your Swagbucks but there is a limit of five per month so make sure you have plenty of time to rack them up. From now on I’ll be trading in my Swagbucks all year long and then using my Amazon gift cards next year.
 
Discounted Gifts

• Play tickets – 6 (including one for myself) bought using my employer’s discount. My employer supports a local performing arts center so we are usually offered discounts on certain plays. See if your employers offers similar discounts
•  National Geographic for Kids using a discount site (sorry - I can’t remember which site I used)
• Mixbook items using certificate from Groupon

 For the rest of my shopping I looked for sales and used coupons. Be sure and take advantage of sites such as Retail Me Not for discount codes. I have been pleasantly surprised by savings I’m able to generate from there. You can also sign up for sites like Ebates where you can earn rebates if you do a lot of Internet shopping.

Using Your Shopping Time Wisely

Time is not my friend. Plus due to some back issues I really can’t shop for more than a couple hours at a time, at least if I want to be able to walk the next day. Using my shopping time wisely is imperative. Here are some of the various ways that I’ve gotten my items picked up with relatively little effort.

• The Internet is your friend. Some stores (like Wal-mart) allow you to shop online and have the products available to pick up in the store with no additional shipping charges. I often buy gift cards over the Internet since a number of stores will ship them for free saving me a trip out. If the site does charge for shipping, consider re-loading an existing card. I buy my father-in-law a movie theater gift card every year. This year I took an old card that I had received, reloaded it with my desired amount (which I also received a discount on) and am giving that to him. He won’t know that I didn’t get it fresh from the theater, I saved myself a trip out and I didn’t have to pay any shipping. Get creative with your Internet shopping. 
• Be purposeful in your shopping. I have done four mini shopping trips this year. The first trip was during Thanksgiving week when I had some time to myself. I decided to browse some stores (something I rarely do) by myself and pick up a few gift certificates. It was very relaxing and I found some awesome deals at Hobby Lobby! I also went out on Black Friday with my daughter, took a vacation day to shop with my husband (we went out for lunch and had a blast) and took my son to pick out his own clothes as a gift. Having a list of what I needed as well as planning my routes to save gas & time has helped me to quickly and efficiently finish my shopping. 
• Ask others to pick up gifts if they are going to a specific store. My daughter and nieces take their dance lessons at the same place. I rarely need to go to the dance studio anymore but my sister-in-law is there twice a week. I ordered a special dance bag for my daughter, gave my sister-in-law the money and she’s picking it up for me. It’s not any additional work for her but saves me from making a special trip out.

Those are some of my secrets.  Do you have any shopping tips to share?

You might also like:

Getting Through the Holidays Without Stressing Out
Specific Tips for De-Stressing the Holiday Season
Saving for Christmas

 The above links are affiliate links.

Getting Through the Holidays Without Stressing Out

I received a comment yesterday that made me pause. After reading my weekly goals, Livin' in Duckville wanted to know if I slept the week I was accomplishing said goals. As my blog name implies, I am not a super hero and I don’t want to give the impression that I am one or make anyone feel bad if they don’t accomplish the things I accomplish.

In fact, I was at my SIL’s house last night for a Lia Sophia party and I left feeling a little bad about my home decorating skills and what I put up for Christmas decorations. Her house could easily be in a magazine the decorations are so beautiful. BUT – I am not my sister in law! She works two and a half days a week, I work 5+. She prefers to put money into her house, we prefer to drive newer cars and take trips. She prefers her house to look elegant; I prefer things look homey and lived in. It’s all about priorities and what’s important to YOU.

This year I set out to make Christmas completely non-stressful for myself. I don’t want to slide into Christmas exhausted and crabby. Other years I would be putting up decorations a few days before Christmas, feverishly wrapping presents until midnight on Christmas Eve and killing myself to make cookies that sometimes would be thrown out by the end of January. That’s not even taking into account the financial stress I put myself under to make sure everyone had “the perfect gift”

After last year I questioned myself, is this really what Christmas is all about? Do I want to go through life so tired, exhausted and stressed that I just can’t wait for the holidays to be over? Now that I’m in my 40’s (early 40’s just to be clear) I’ve developed a little bit of wisdom. This wisdom tells me that life is too short to not enjoy. I’m the only one putting all this pressure on myself and I’m the only one who can stop it. It’s up to me to only do what is important to me and my family, determine the most efficient way to do it and not beat myself up if something doesn’t get done.

With that in mind, last year I sat myself down and asked myself what my fundamental issues were (same thing I do with my organization projects). Here is what I determined.

• Even though we know Christmas comes at the same time every year we are always financially unprepared for it. I’m always thankful that December is a three paycheck month.
• The decorating of the house gets done when I have time for it, not when I schedule time for it and sometimes its right before Christmas.
• My disorganized closets make decorating painful in that my Christmas decorations are at the bottom of the heap and everything needs to be pulled out. Adds to the time it takes to decorate.
• I typically wait until I have all my presents bought to do my wrapping. Then I get mad when my husband a) doesn’t want to help me wrap b) doesn’t do a “good enough” job.
• When shopping I try to make sure that I spend exactly the same amount on everyone, to the point of buying something stupid for someone because I’m $10 off.
• Shop and shop and shop for the perfect gift. Sometimes a gift card says it all.

 I’m going to address what I have done to improve each of these issues over the next few days. I’ll start tomorrow by addressing how I managed to finish most of my shopping by the beginning of December without stressing myself out financially.

Stop back tomorrow to find out some of my shopping tricks.

Christmas Tree Cheese Display

I love throwing a party and I really like making sure the presentation is nice.  Unfortunately I feel like I fall short on this area sometimes.  I want to be like Martha Stewart but for some reason I'm not......

I've recently starting using Pininterest.  I haven't spent a lot of time on it yet but there have been a couple of cool things that I found.  One of my first finds that I re-pinned is this cheese display.



What a great idea and so easy!  The original idea and directions for re-creating are located at Cabot Cheese.  I'll be doing this at one of my holiday parties this Christmas!

You might also like:

De-Stressing the Holidays

Cutting Back on Christmas Spending

De-Stressing the Holiday Season

You will hear me say this over and over, but one of my biggest challenges in life is lack of time. I’m going to take a wild guess that I’m not the only one struggling with this issue. Whether you work outside the home or not, the vast majority of us are challenged by the number of items that must get squeezed into a 24 hour period. The holidays just add an extra layer of stress on all of us. After all, we must create wonderful childhood memories for our family consisting of: yummy tasting cookies, beautifully decorated trees, exquisitely wrapped presents and a feast fit for a king all while wearing this year’s latest fashions, perfect make-up and not a hair out of place. Yeah – right!

 

Previous years have brought a lot of stress and screaming to the WWIN household trying to get the “perfect Christmas” while failing miserably. Over the years I’ve come to realize that I either need to a) adjust my idea of the perfect Christmas or b) get help.

 

Since I don’t have it in me to adjust my idea of the perfect Christmas I’ve had to settle for getting help. Every year the help I seek changes a little bit but the point is, YOU CAN’T DO IT ALL YOURSELF. Yes, I did yell that because all of us (including me) need to hear it again.

 

My first piece of advice to you is to decide what is truly important to you and throw out the rest of the noise. Christmas cards? Gone! Outside lights? Gone! Gingerbread houses? Staying! You get the idea.

 

Here are some ideas to help you “outsource” your holiday stress and hopefully find some balance within the season.

 

Christmas Baking – Come on, do you really need to make 12 different types of cookies? If you enjoy it and it doesn’t stress you out then go for it! However, if you are making those cookies because you think you “have to” and it’s stressing you out then stop. This year I am planning on making three different cookies. I will be baking my molasses cookies (known affectionately at our house as the “pain in the butt cookies”), carrot cookies and pecan fingers. These are all special recipes my husband and kids enjoy so I’m not going to skimp there. If I need chocolate chip cookies in a pinch I’ll turn to Tollhouse.

• Outsource ideas
• Check with your local bakery for unfrosted cut-out cookies. A number of years ago I moved to pre-made cut out cookie dough followed by a move a couple of years later to pre-cut cut out cookie dough. Last year I switched to the pre-baked cut out cookies and it was wonderful! As a family we enjoy decorating the cookies, the baking of them were a necessary means to the end. By purchasing pre-baked cookies we still get to decorate the cookies without the hassle of baking them.
• Host a cookie exchange. It’s a lot easier to make twelve dozen of one cookie than one dozen of twelve. I’m sure that you have friends and family who feel the same way. Gather some of your friends, family or co-workers together to exchange cookies. Each person signs up for a particular cookie, bakes the agreed upon quantity and then exchanges with the group. This allows you to have the different options you desire without the stress of the baking

 Wrapping Presents – Who doesn’t love a beautifully wrapped present? My family can always tell how stressful the weeks/months leading up to Christmas were by my wrapping. During a good year each extended family unit gets their own wrapping theme. I buy coordinating wrap and bows so that each present is beautifully wrapped. Other years they were haphazardly wrapped in whatever paper I had or were put in bags.

• Outsource ideas
• Look for a charity who is offering gift wrapping. Most malls offer gift wrapping for charities like Habitat for Humanity. Take all your gifts there to get them wrapped. One year I took all my presents to our local mall where the Senior Citizen Center was holding a fund raiser. For a donation to the center I got all my presents wrapped. The donation really wasn’t much more than I would have spent on wrapping paper and bows (I like pretty paper and bows). Of course the family could tell that was a stressful year for me since there were no bows and fairly plain paper but my presents were wrapped and I felt good about my donation.
• Hire a teenage to wrap your gifts. I’m sure most of us know a teenager who would love to make a few extra bucks. Hire them to wrap your presents for you.

 Entertaining – I love love love to entertain. There is nothing better in my opinion than throwing a party. Unless it’s not having to make any food for the party! There are a couple of things you can do to tone down the food prep for a party. The first thing is to schedule the party at a time when everyone should have eaten. I’m having my department party at 6:30 on a Friday. By then everyone will have grabbed a bite to eat so all I’ll need to provide is some appetizers. The second thing is to not over buy. I spent $300 on food at last year’s party, only half of which was eaten. That was a lot of wasted money and time on my part. At the end of each party make note of what is left over and document how much you should make next year. 

• Outsource ideas 
• Cater your party. I’m sure whenever you hear the word “cater” you think of fancy, expensive food. In some cases that may be true but catering an event can be as simple as going to the grocery store and buy pre-made trays. A cheese and sausage tray may not sound that hard to put together but when you pile the veggie tray, stuffed mushroom caps, hot crab dip, etc on top of it you have a lot of work! Buying everything pre-made is a little more expensive but isn’t enjoying your party stress free worth it?

 Christmas Shopping – Ugh! Nothing stresses me out more than Christmas presents. There are a multitude of reasons why I would like to stop exchanging with extended family but since that isn’t going to happen I needed to come up with a way to simplify my gift giving. One of my favorite ideas is to get a number of people the same gift. This may seem cheesy, but if it’s thoughtful and appreciated who cares? Last year I decided to buy play tickets for my MIL, SIL, two nieces and my daughter. I was able to get five presents bought in one stop and we had a fabulous time! We enjoyed a nice dinner before the show, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Guess what I’m doing this year? You got it, another play. This year we are seeing Mary Poppins. White House ornaments and magazine subscriptions are another one of my favorite go tos. 

• Outsource idea
• Stop shopping the stores and buy everything online. There are so many online discounts and free shipping that it probably won’t cost you more than going to the store. Even if you aren’t getting as awesome deals as you would at the store think of the gas money and time you are saving.

Miscellaneous Traditions – One of our favorite holiday traditions is to decorate gingerbread houses with my nieces and nephew. The first couple of years my sister-in-law was gung ho about baking the houses herself. After a couple of stressful years we graduated to pre-cooked but needed to be assembled gingerbread houses which were still a little bit stressful. We have since gone to the fully assembled gingerbread houses that just need decorations – much less stressful! 

• Outsource idea
• The memories your children are going to carry with them into adulthood aren’t the fact that your gingerbread house could compete with Martha Stewart or that your projects were 100% from scratch. Whatever your project is, think about how to get it done with the least amount of work and stress. Whether it’s buying pre-assembled gingerbread houses, pre-baked cut outs or craft kits the kids will really only remember the happy times you spent doing something with them. The memories will be happiest if they don’t involve yelling and screaming. 

I realize that these suggestions aren’t for everyone. What I’m trying to do is get you to think outside of the box. Think about what’s important to you and find a way to get it done, even if that means hiring someone else to do it. If it’s not important to you then let it go. The holidays should be a time to spend with your family, not get wrapped up in all the commercial trappings.

  

I’ll be linking this up over a We are THAT Family.

 

Saving for Christmas – Additional Ideas

I wrote my original “Saving for Christmas” post back in July. Since then I’ve had a few more ideas that I thought I would share with you.


Before we get started talking about the new ideas, I’ll reiterate some of the ways that I mentioned before.

Swagbucks – Excellent way to stick aside some money easily without a lot of effort. Remember from last week though that 1) Ten $5 Amazon gift cards use Swagbucks than one $50 card 2)you can only buy five like gift cards per month 3)it takes up to 14 days to get the cards credited to your account.

Christmas Club – We started ours last year and it’s a fantastic feeling knowing I have that money there for Christmas shopping. Our money will be deposited from our club to our savings on November 1st. I’m not planning on needing all the money so I’ll be able to either save the rest or put towards debt reduction.

Credit card points – This option isn’t for everyone but I do use a credit card that I pay off every two weeks when we get a paycheck. I would actually use it to pay some bills (like our cell phone) that didn’t charge us a credit card fee to help rack up points. However, if you are paying interest on any of your purchases it doesn’t make sense to use the credit card just for the points.

Part time job – Christmas time is a great time to get a part time job if you can work it out with your schedule. Many employers are looking for seasonal helpers and are willing to work around different scheduling needs.

Selling items you no longer need – This is a two-fer, you get to purge items you no longer need and make money! While rummage sale season has come and gone for those of us in the Midwest there are still options for selling your stuff. Look at consignment shops, indoor community rummage sales, Craigslist or bulletin boards at work to sell items that you no longer need. Last year I made $100 selling paperback books at work! Please don’t ask how much I spent on those paperback books!

Selling crafty items - November is a huge time for craft sales.  If you have a particular craft see if you can get a spot at a church or school craft sales (they are typically cheaper) and sell some of your items.  Any thing you could do is open a store on Etsy. 

Here are three new ways that I’ll be paying for some of our Christmas presents.

Saving our change – I know that there are some of you that probably already do this; I’m going to admit that I’m not real diligent about saving my change. We do have a container that we throw pennies in but otherwise I take my change to work for the vending machines. Many times right around Christmas the coin changers (like CoinStar) will offer incentives to cash in your change. If you choose the gift card option they’ll waive the fee and give you a bonus amount (like 10%)on the card. As of yet CoinStar hasn’t announced any incentives but I’m sure there will be some around the holidays. Some of the cards available include: Amazon, JC Penney, Old Navy, CVS and many more.

Taking advantage of rebates – My husband ‘needed’ a new phone this past summer. The phone he wanted happened to have a $100 rebate attached to it. When we received our rebate check we decided to stick it aside and use it for Christmas. We’ll either give the card as is to our son (he’s a college student so he’d appreciate it) or use the card ourselves to buy a present. Many retailers offer rebates on their products, saving them up and sticking them back for Christmas would add up to a nice sum.

Other refunds due – My employer reimburses us for half of our gym membership up to $300. I keep forgetting to file my claim. As soon as I’m done writing this post I’m going to get it done! Do you have any unclaimed money lying around somewhere that you keep putting off? If so get out there, claim and put it aside for Christmas!

Do you have any other ideas for making money to help pay for Christmas?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom

Christmas Shopping - Swagbucks

In some of my earlier posts I shared that I was going to use Swagbucks to help with Christmas presents.  My goal was to get enough Swagbucks to get a $50 certificate.  I've been diligently printing coupons, surfing, answering polls, etc to get my bucks up to the 6,000 mark. 

Now, I'm sure some of you know this but I didn't so I'm going to let you in on the secret I learned.  It's cheaper to buy 10 $5 Amazon certificates than to buy one $50 - significantly cheaper.  I've seen people post that they would pick up a $5 certificate as soon as they had enough points but I guess I didn't understand why, I do now!

I'm going to let you in on another secret, you can only buy five of the same certificates in a month AND it takes almost two weeks for them to be usable.  Soooo, if you are planning on using them for Christmas you better get cracking!

I've bought my five certificates for the month and will buy five more early November.  I'll have enough Swagbucks to get more (and will pick them up in early December) but I won't be using them for presents since it will be getting to close to Christmas.  Still haven't decided yet what I'll be buying from Amazon but I know that there is something on there that would make a nice gift.

Are there any other Swagbuck secrets out there that I may not know about?  I'd love to hear your Swagbuck plans

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom

You might also like:

Saving for Christmas
Preparing for Christmas
Photo Books for Christmas

Christmas Idea - Photo Albums

As I’m sure most of my regular readers know by now I’m working really hard to make this Christmas is stress free is terms of money and time. After last Christmas I started a Christmas club, I’ve already started buying presents plus I’ve been looking for other ways to add money to the Christmas fund.

My most recent endeavor is creating photo albums for the kids. I’m sure my next statement will make some of you gasp in horror but…..I have all my photos stuck in a tote in the basement and I’ve never done baby books or photo albums. Don’t worry, the kids have photos of various ages stuck around the house and we do pull out all of our photos occasionally to peruse but I’m not organized about it. I decided this Christmas to do something about it.

Since I discovered Mixbook earlier this year I’ve been hooked. I can get the custom look I want without the mess of actually scrapbooking. Don’t get me wrong, this is taking me quite a bit of time but it’s not nearly as much time as the few times I’ve attempted scrapbooking. Plus, I can order multiple copies of the books which I couldn’t do if I was scrapbooking.

Last week Groupon offered a coupon where I was able to get a $50 Groupon for Mixbook for only $15. These certificates can’t be used with other offers but I figured that was still quite a deal. Plus, Mixbook offers a lot of promotions (I generally post a link to their current special over to the right) that I’ll take advantage of.

To be a little more efficient I’m actually doing both books at the same time. While I’m customizing the books for each child, a lot of the pictures come from the same event so I only need to review the CD’s once to add photographs.

Giving the gift of a photo album or photo calendar I think is a great (and potentially inexpensive) way to share the events from the previous year with your loved ones. While I like Mixbook, there are many other options out there including Walmart, Shutterfly, etc.

Check the box, two more presents paid for at $15 apiece. I still haven’t ordered them because I’m still not done, but I’ll get there. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Other Frugal Christmas Posts
Saving for Christmas
Preparing for Christmas
Present Idea - White House Ornaments

How is your Christmas shopping going?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom

Frugal Friday - Christmas Shopping

As I've shared with you, my plan for this year is to try and get my Christmas shopping done before our Christmas Club is released.  This will enable me to use the Christmas funds I've saved for our vacation and keep my eyes open for killer sales since I'm shopping so early.

This week's purchase wasn't exactly a frugal buy but since it falls into my frugal Christmas shopping plan I thought I'd share it.  Kristen at We are THAT Family had posted about some new products that were available at the Mercy House store.  I faithfully followed her journey to Africa earlier this summer and loved the beaded necklaces that the girls were making in one of the pictures she posted.  I have to share that I have a soft spot in my heart for young, single, pregnant girls so when I saw her post go up that those products were available I headed right over there to purchase one of them.

For $20 (plus a couple of bucks shipping and handling) I got a really cool necklace, handmade by young women in Africa.  If that necklace was in a retail shop here it would cost more than $20 so I thought it was a pretty good deal.  My plan is to give this necklace to my sister-in-law for Christmas,  but I don't know that I can honestly do that since I really want it for myself :)  I'm thinking about heading over there next paycheck and buying a couple more for my daughter and nieces for Christmas (and maybe one for myself).  Hopefully she'll still have some in stock!

That's four presents down, I don't even want to think about how many more I have to go!

Are you planning on doing your shopping early or are you going to wait until after Thanksgiving?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom

You might also like:

Preparing for Christmas
Saving Money Eating Out
Time Management - Preparing for the Week

My First Christmas Present of the Year

If you've been following my financials goals you will know that this past year was the first time that I established a Christmas Club.  Even though Christmas comes at the same time every year, previous years have found my Chrismas shopping done in one of two ways:

• An organized fashion where I started in the summer buying as much as I can, finishing in December with our third paycheck or my bonus (haven't gotten a December bonus in a number of years).  There was usually quite a bit of stressing about how to afford Christmas.
• A disorganized fashion where I started in December using our third paycheck for Christmas, there was typically A LOT of stress about how to afford Christmas.

 Unfortunately both ways resulted most of the time in the credit card being pulled out to finish up.  Last year was the first year that I didn't stress quite as much and didn't have to use the credit card but I still felt there had to be a better way.  Hence, the Christmas Club goal this year.

In addition to the club, I've been planning other ways to find Christmas money (you can read more about that here).  I'm happy to say that I bought my first present this week and it didn't cost me a dime!


As I've gotten older I try to make my gifts more meaningful.  I'm not saying I never give the plastic 'it' toy but I do try to be more thoughtful in my gift choices and give either practical gifts, experience gifts or lifetime gifts.  By lifetime gifts I mean gifts that the kids can carry with them into adulthood.

On a trip to Washington D.C. a number of years ago I stumbled across the White House ornament and fell in love.  My mother and grandmother always included special ornaments in our presents and I loved the idea of creating a whole series for my daughter.  Over the years I've included my nieces in the annual ornament collection.  Here is this year's White House Ornament ($17.95- no S&H, Click here to be taken to the website.  This is not an affiliate link)
























Now for the good stuff.  I ended up getting my three ornaments for free by using my credit card points.  Note If you are not in position (or have the will power) to pay your card off in full please don't try to use credit card points, they aren't worth it.  I use the Chase points, what I like about Chase is that you can buy the item in question with your credit card and pay that specific item with your points.  As soon as the item shows up in your statement (I pay my statement at minimum twice a month) you can go into your rewards and transfer points directly to that purchase.  This is what I did with the ornaments making them free.  Yeah!

I'm expecting to be able to get a couple more items for free using my Chase points.  I'm hoping to make my next purchase with Swagbucks but I'm still almost 1,000 points short, I need to get on those surveys!  I'm actually trying to get the majority of my shopping done before the release of my Christmas Club funds so that I can set that money aside for our super cool trip we are planning in Q1 2012.

I'll keep you updated on my shopping progress.  How about you, have you started your shopping yet?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom and We are THAT Family

You might also like:

What do you Want out of Your Job?
Preparing for Christmas
Financial Check Up - July
Rock Star Mom Moment

Preparing for Christmas

I know, it's the end of June.  Why am I talking about Christmas?  Well, if you read my post about Saving for Christmas you'll know I'm trying to be better prepared this year.  While last week's post focused on putting money aside, this week I want to talk about ways to prepare all year long.

Some years I find that I have more time so I think a little bit more about what to get people all year long.  The trouble is sometimes I forget what I've bought, how much I've spent or where I put it.  Here are some suggestions for how to prepare all year long.

Keep your lists from year to year
I keep my Christmas lists in Excel and copy each sheet every year so that I can 1) remember what I gave the following year 2)start jotting down ideas as they come up.  Why do you ask is it important that you remember what you gave last year?  That's so you don't give you sister-in-law the exact same thing because you thought of her when you saw it.  Yes - I have done that before.  I try to do special presents (like the White House ornaments) for any of the kids where I'm their godmother.  I sometimes forget who get what so this helps keep me on track.  In addition to the gift ideas I write down the cost, this helps me to stay in my allotted budget for each person.

Add immediately to next year's list
It never fails, when I'm done with someone I find 'the perfect item' for them.  If I have the money I may pick it up and set it aside for next year (and add it to the list) or else I'll jot it down on my list for the following Christmas.

Periodically pull out the list to see if something can be bought ahead
As I stated there are some items I buy from year to year (like the White House ornaments).  By periodically looking at my list I'll remind myself if there is something I could order early or that is seasonal.  This has helped me avoid the 'ugh - I don't have enough saved for Christmas' crisis in previous years.

Shop off-season
My mother-in-law is a Master Gardener and my sister-in-law loves pigs.  I'm always on the look out during the summer/fall craft sales for unusual pig items or I shop the end of year clearance center at the garden stores.  I have picked up some really cool items at 75% which I would not have otherwise been able to afford. 

Wrap your purchases when you buy them
Who wants to think about gift wrapping in July?  Someone who doesn't want to spend hours upon hours doing it at Christmas!  If you can buy wrapping paper and bows at the end of Christmas sale you should be all ready to go.  Wrapping the presents ahead of time saves me MUCH aggravation during the holiday season.  As long as you put a name tag on it and have written down on the list what you bought the person you should be fine.

Put your gifts where you can find them
One Christmas I stuck my White House ornaments aside (because I bought them so early!) and couldn't remember where I put them.  During present opening I had to tell the girls that they were getting them but that I couldn't find them.  Luckily I found them in February in the drawer I had stuck them in for safe keeping.  Pick a spot to put all your presents and use it! 

Make your own gifts
Brandy at The Prudent Homemaker commented on my Christmas post that she makes a lot of her gifts.  I think that is fantastic as I love getting home made gifts.  Last year my mom made scarves for all of us, this year she's making blankets.  If you have a skill, use it!  I think that a gift that has been hand made is very special and tends to be cherished more than a lot of the plastic toys we give.  Preparing all year for what gifts you'd like to make can make the holiday season a little less stressful and will help stretch your dollar (maybe -  depending on what you make) quite a bit further.

As I have gotten older I've really gotten disenchanted by the commercialism of Christmas.  Later this week I'll be writing about some gift giving ideas to make Christmas a little more meaningful.

How do you prepare for Christmas all year long?

Saving for Christmas

I don't know if you know this but Christmas is on the same day every year, can you believe it?  What tends to happen to me is almost every year I can't believe how quickly the pages of the calendar turn and Christmas is here, with no money set aside for presents!  Do you know what the definition of crazy is?  Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.  This year I decided to step out of the crazy and actually do something so that I have some money set aside this year.

Here is how I plan to fund my Christmas account this year:

Christmas Club
If you are following my budget update you will know that setting up a Christmas Club was one of my goals for the year (you can read about my financial goals here).  I have never participated in our credit union's Christmas Club before but after the stress of last Christmas I decided that the week I was off over the holidays would be devoted to setting up a fund.  With about 8-9 deposits to go (the money is dispersed late October) I have enough money to pay for my kids presents.  I should finish with enough to cover about 75% of our Christmas spend.  If you go the Christmas Club route I would encourage you to do automatic deposit so that money actually gets in there!

Swagbucks
This is the first year I have really been taking advantage of Swagbucks.  In addition to using them as the search engine I've also bought some things through there (that I would have bought anyway) which has helped increase my balance.  I'm expecting to have enough points to buy a $50 gift card that I will put towards Christmas presents

Credit card points
I know this is controversial but the fact is I like using credit cards (we don't carry balances, I pay whatever balance we have when I get my paycheck every two weeks) and don't overspend on them.  Little lecture - it's important when using credit cards to use them like cash.  If you don't have the money in the bank to pay it off don't use them.  I accumulate my points and choose the cash option which I will then use for Christmas presents.  If I'm not charged a fee, I will pay some of my bills with the credit card to get the points.  US Cellular lets you pay over the phone with a credit card without charging you extra but the power company charges a 3% fee if you use a credit card (at least in our state).  If it's going to cost you something to use the credit card don't use it!  I'm expecting to have a couple of hundred dollars to put towards Christmas.

Sell what you don't need
Look for outlets to sell your goods.  Rummage sales, Craigslist, bulletin boards at work, etc.  I've shared before that I don't like rummage sales but I've had a ton of success with using our electronic bulletin board at work.  I've sold a car, kids clothes, books, etc.  Any money that can be added to your kitty would help.

Make something to sell
If you have a crafty skill, put it to use.  Think about what you do that your friends rave about and see if you can find a market for it.  Are you a killer baker?  What about selling homemade Christmas cookies or candy to those of us who find it stressful to bake during the holidays?  Craft shows tend to be big in October/November.  Rent a couple of booths (they tend to be fairly cheap) and set up shop.

Get a part time job
Many places hire seasonal help in the fall with hours that could fit into almost any schedule.  If you stay at home with your kids you could try picking up some hours at a retail store or restaurant nights and weekends.  A lot of catalog companies are looking for extra phone staff.  I would think you could easily clear over $500 by working 10-15 hours a week for two months.

How do you save for Christmas?  I'd love to hear other ideas.